The past six months have been a whirlwind of success for the Australian-born NERVO twins. They were the only female DJs on the DJ Mag Top 100 poll, landing at No. 46, the third-highest new entry among EDM's elite. The only other female to ever make the list was Claudia Cazacu, who squeaked in at No. 93 in 2010. And the songwriters/producers/DJs can now add “COVERGIRL” to their résumé, joining a select roster of artists that includes Pink, Queen Latifah and Taylor Swift on a national campaign featuring print ads and TV commercials. They did this all while playing every major EDM festival in the U.S. and abroad; holding a coveted residency in Ibiza at Ushuaïa and the Wynn Hotel Group in Las Vegas; and hosting a monthly DJ mix show, NERVO Nation, on Sirius XM. The ladies return to OC this weekend for a show at the Yost Theater in downtown Santa Ana.
Born Miriam and Olivia Nervo (a.k.a. Mim and Liv), they moved to London (where they are currently based) to study music and had a successful career as songwriters for five years before becoming superstar DJs three years ago. They have written songs for artists such as Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Kylie Minogue, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus and the Pussycat Dolls. Today, they are working on a full-length debut album on Astralwerks to follow up their chart-topping singles “You're Gonna Love Again” and “We Are All Alone,” featuring Steve Aoki and Afrojack. They were in LA last week filming the video for their latest hit “Like Home,” a song they collaborated on with the Dutch phenomenon Nicky Romero. Since they plan on spending some much-needed studio time here, we caught up with the twins to talk West Coast and find out what some of their most memorable moments have been on this side of the Atlantic.
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5. Riding the Groove at Wave House
“We love all of the beach towns down from LA because the California vibe is awesome. Wave house in San Diego was one of our favorite gigs on the West Coast this summer. Playing for the LED guys is always fun. They are really educating the OC and San Diego crowd on electronic music. They book all kinds of DJs–from electro, deep and tech house to dubstep.”
4. Discovering Mexican food, er, kind of…
“The day Mim discovered Chipotle was the highlight of our travels here. Mexican food in California is the best in the world. We don't have that in the U.K., and we miss it when we aren't here. What's not to love about it? We always get extra guacamole, too. Mm-hmm!”
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3. Decompressing in San Francisco
“We went to Burning Man in 2010 and 2011 for fun. We would have gone this year if we didn't have our summer residency in Ibiza. The music was great; we loved the daytime art scene and the idea behind the burn. But what we loved most was driving to San Francisco and getting our hair washed and cut after all of the playa dust. San Francisco and Napa Valley were so beautiful we were blown away. We went to decompress and chill out for an amazing four days. There was such a great vibe there.”
2. Winning a Grammy
“We were actually in LA the day the song we wrote for David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland, 'When Love Takes Over,' won a Grammy. That was an amazing moment we couldn't believe. We played the official Grammy after-party at the W Hollywood hotel, which had just opened. Though we were just the writers and didn't get mentioned, we were still proud of our accomplishment.”
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1. Playing the Electric Daisy Carival
“This was our first time playing at EDC, and it was important in our careers as performing artists. We had a semi-early time slot, so we went in with moderate expectations. But when we got to the Dim Mak stage, we felt the love from all of our fans. It was incredible to see the stage filled up and so many NERVO fans with signs and bracelets for us. Those bracelets are really special, and we keep them all. We love how they get dressed up in their little skimpy outfits and don't hold back. They even knew all of our songs, even those we haven't released yet. It was incredible.”
NERVO perform with Fareoh,
Brazzabelle and Catsexual at the Yost Theater, 307 N. Spurgeon St.,
Santa Ana, (888) 862-9573; www.yostttheater.com. Sun.,
9 p.m. $20 in advance; $25 at the door. 21+.
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